Kariba Houseboat Safari – Day 3

March 13, 2009 | Posted by Safari Guide

Kariba Houseboat Trip Report – March 2009

Day 3 | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 4 | Day 5 & 6 |

Palm Bay, Matusadona National Park, Kariba
I woke up as the sun was just about to peer over the horizon, to find that there was an Impala ram silhouetted against the fiery sky…. what’s that saying about the early bird catching the early worm?

I spent most of the day taking photographs, either on land, from the houseboat or taking out the smaller fishing boat to get closer to the action. Highlights included a family of at least 11 elephants with plenty of young not far from us, a saddle-billed stork, an African Fish Eagle that was happy to pose for me and what I guess best of all, a Banded Gymnogene that I think was almost in breeding plumage, with a pinkish bill. It was obviously on the hunt for chicks in nests in trees and when I managed to get close to it, it was being mobbed by a pair of brave Glossy Starlings.

Angry Hippos
Other wildlife spotted included a bachelor herd of Impala, a herd of Zebra, Hippo, Crocodile and a Terrapin. One thing that was very noticeable was that apart from the usual pods of hippo there were a few hippos just wallowing in an inlet on their own, they seemed to be far more aggressive than usual (I found this out when trying to manoeuvre the small boat to get some photos of the Saddle-billed Stork!) My guess is that they were females getting ready to give birth: Pregnant hippos will remove themselves from the rest of the pod to find a safe sheltered spot to give birth and will stay away until the baby is able to survive the attention it will receive once they re-unite themselves with the others.

That night we had a braai that included steak and some excellent boereworse on the front of the boat.

Birds: Palm Bay, Kariba

• African Wattled Lapwing (Plover)
• African Jacana
• African Fish-Eagle
• Gymnogene (African Harrier-Hawk) (Mobbed by Glossy Starlings)
• White-Headed Vulture
• Cape Glossy Starling
• Cattle Egret
• Wire-tailed Swallow
• Greyheaded Sparrows (building nest in hollow of a tree)
• Redbilled Wood-Hoopoe
• Grey-headed Gull
• Reed Cormorant
• African Darter
• Pied Kingfisher
• Egyptian Goose
• Grey Heron
• Blacksmith Lapwing (Plover)
• African Openbilled Stork
• Great White Egret (Black bill – in breeding plumage)
• Burchell’s Coucal
• Lilac-breasted Rollers
• Little Bee-eater
• Common Sandpiper
• Green-backed Heron
• Dwarf Bittern
• Saddle-Billed Stork
• Red-billed Hornbill (Heard)
• White-faced Duck
• Black Heron
• African Sacred Ibis

Trip Report Menu
This post is part of a series of posts on a Lake Kariba Houseboat Trip in March 2009

• Day 1 – Harare to Kariba to Antelope Island
• Day 2 – Antelope Island to Palm Bay
• Day 3 – Palm Bay
• Day 4 – Palm Bay to Spurwing Island, Kariba
• Day 5 & Day 6 – Spurwing Island to Antelope Island to Kariba

For more Information Check out the Safari Holiday Guide to Lake Kariba Houseboats & Safaris

Kariba Photo Gallery
For more photos of this trip, check out my Kariba Wildlife Photographs.

Photographic Equipment Used
All the photos in this gallery were taken using the Panasonic DMC-FZ18 Digital Camera. I also often used the Olympus TCON-17 1.7x Tele Conversion lens (TCON-17). For more information check out:

• The Best Digital Cameras for Safaris
• Telephoto Conversion Lenses for the Panasonic DMC-FZ28 & DMC-FZ18 Digital Cameras

Categories: Trip Report, Zimbabwe | Tags: Houseboat, Kariba, Safari, Trip Report, Zimbabwe | No Comments »